Voldemort's Last Stand
by Spots on a Pony
Summary: Harry discovers that Voldemort has somehow gotten into Hogwarts and he must face him, ready or not. AU seventh year.


None of the Harry Potter characters belong to me. I'm just making a sandcastle in JKR's sandbox.

I've read fanfics where Harry wishes Voldemort would die of old age or chokes to death or something. This is one of the 'somethings'.

All reviews welcomed.

Voldemort's Last Stand

By

Spots On A Pony

Harry suddenly came awake in his bed in the Gryffindor seventh year's dorm with severe pain in his scar. He gritted his teeth and took deep breaths in order to fight down the pain and figure out Voldemort was up to. As he gained control over the link between himself and the evil dark lord, he was horrified to discover that Voldemort somehow, someway, had gotten past the wards and _was in Hogwarts _looking for him. And he would kill anyone who got in his way; he would even go out of his way to kill if it would draw Harry to him. This Harry couldn't permit.

While his dorm mates snored on, Harry quickly put on his glasses, dressed, grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak and snuck out. As he slipped out the portrait door, the fat lady blinked sleepily at him and asked, "Harry dear, why are you going out so late?"

"Voldemort is here, in Hogwarts," Harry hissed to her, shocking her fully awake. "Warn the other portrait's to secure the entrances to the other houses and alert the Headmistress and the Professors. I'm going to try to lead him to a remote part of the castle and keep him occupied until help arrives. Can you do that?"

"Yes I can," she replied as Harry flung on his invisibility cloak. "Good luck." She then slipped into the picture first on one side and then the other, waking the occupants and sending them out to warn the rest of the school. She would stay in her portrait; Voldemort wouldn't get past her to harm _her Gryffindors. _

As Harry made his way through the corridors, he tried to get a general idea where Voldemort was. He remembered the Marauders Map, and cursed himself for forgetting it, but it was too late to go back for it now. So finding Voldemort was like playing the muggle game of hot and cold. He knew Voldemort was very close when the pain in his scar was at its worse and was further away when the pain lessened. Following the pain in his scar to its most intense, Harry saw movement at the other end of the corridor, it was Voldemort. Even though Voldemort couldn't see Harry, but because of the link between the two of them, Voldemort could now follow Harry.

As Harry fled, Hogwarts itself seemed to help him by shifting stairways after Harry passed, infuriating and delaying Voldemort in his pursuit. As he ran down another corridor, he could hear rustlings and murmurs from the paintings that lined the walls, "Voldemort's here, spread the word. Be prepared to misinform him and to direct the headmistress and the teachers!"

As Harry paused to catch his breath, he could hear the crash of armor and Peeves' high-pitched laughter in the distance. The castle poltergeist was declaring which side he was on and doing his part to help. Up a couple more stairways and down a few more corridors, Harry thought he might be in a part of the castle where it would be safe to confront the dark lord. Checking a few doors, he found a room that looked perfect for dueling. It was long and narrow with a row of windows high on the outside wall that moonlight was just starting to shine in. Harry moved to a dark corner where he could watch the door. Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he shrugged off the invisibility cloak and took a firm grip on his wand. There was nothing more to do but wait; it would end one way or another here and now.

As he waited, Harry looked over the room and tried to decide what spells he would use. He would hit Voldemort with his best spells one after the other as fast as he could as soon as he had a clear view of the dark lord. It wouldn't be fair, but how fair was it for a powerful, fully trained wizard to duel to the death with a not fully trained seventeen year old? The important thing was to win, and Harry intended to win even if it meant giving up his own life to save his friends and school. As more moonlight poured into the room, Harry's attention was caught by a glimmer of light off something in the corner of the other end of the room. He was startled back to attention by the sudden appearance of Voldemort, who had entered by way of a door further down the room.

"Ah, finally we meet my young friend," Voldemort hissed.

Mentally cursing himself for having lost the advantage of surprise, he gripped his wand and prepared to cast his first spell, but then hesitated, Voldemort had his back toward him and was moving _away_ from him, towards that glimmer in the moonlight. Remaining motionless in the dark corner, he waited to see what would happen. Maybe he hadn't lost the advantage after all.

As Voldemort slinked toward the glimmer, Harry could hear him say, "At last Harry it comes to this. No more meddling in my affairs and thwarting my plans, no more running and hiding like the coward you are."

Harry had no idea who or what Voldemort was talking to. He could see something moving in the corner that Voldemort was approaching but he couldn't make out what it was. And any delay would bring help closer and help his chances of beating Voldemort better, so he stayed quiet and watched and listened.

"What, no last words of defiance? No pleading for your life?" he hissed. "Well no matter." He pointed his wand at the figure in the corner and snarled, "_Avada Kedavra!"_

As Harry watched in disbelief, more moonlight illuminated the room, showing that Voldemort was addressing a figure in a mirror and not a person. In fact a familiar mirror. Voldemort realized that he was facing a mirror just as green light shot out the end of his wand. "Nnnooo," he shrieked in dismay, but it was too late. The green light of the curse shattered the mirror as it was reflected back to its caster. Voldemort dropped in his tracks, dead.

Harry stood in his corner stunned, the only sound being that of bits of glass falling from the frame of the mirror. He couldn't believe it; Voldemort had apparently, accidentally killed himself. With his wand at the ready, Harry cautiously approached the body and carefully kicked the yew wand away. Voldemort's expression in death showed that he was even more surprised than Harry at the turn of events. Tearing his gaze away from the body he looked at the mirror. It was indeed the Mirror Of Erised, the inscription, _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_, confirming its identity. The mirror had shown Voldemort the deepest desire of his heart, but the gaining of this desire backfired on him. In the few shards of glass remaining in the frame, Harry could see what appeared to be an image of himself huddled against a wall. The mirror Harry uncurled himself and stood up. He gave Harry a cocky grin, saluted him with his wand and then faded away. The remaining shards fell out of the mirror's frame and crashed to the floor.

Unsure of what to do, Harry kept alert, wand at the ready. For all he knew, there were Death Eaters with Voldemort, and if they got his body away, with the horcruxes that had yet to be found, Voldemort could be quickly resurrected. So all he could do was wait and hope that help arrived first.

In a way, Harry was most relieved. In a very strange way, the prophecy had been fulfilled. He had survived, but he didn't have to kill Voldemort himself. He had never wanted to kill anyone, even in self-defense, although he would do so if he had to, to protect his friends, his school, and himself. He could never take pleasure in killing someone, even Voldemort who sorely deserved it, this way he would have no blood on his hands and would be able to sleep at night.

Suddenly both doors were blasted off their hinges and two teams of witches and wizards stormed in wands at the ready. To his relief, one team was made up of the wizarding staff of Hogwarts led by McGonagall and the other was a team of aurors led by Mad-Eye Moody, who were stationed in Hogsmead.

"Are you all right Mr. Potter?" Headmistress McGonagall asked of her favorite student.

"Is he dead then?" Moody added, his false eye focused on the body.

"Yyeess, and yes," Harry stuttered. He then explained how he realized that Voldemort was in the school and how and why he lured him to this room. "Then he must have seen me in the mirror and not realized that he was seeing a reflection and cast the killing curse at it, and it was reflected back at him."

"Well that certainly was a unique way of doing himself in," Moody said. "But with the remaining horcruxes out there, we can't be sure of him staying that way until they are all found and destroyed. Constant vigilance must be maintained. Though destroying this will help." He clumped over to where Voldemort's wand lay, picked it up and broke it into several pieces. "Not having his wand will slow him down some. So now we need to search the school for any Death Eaters that may be about. Then we'll see about destroying the body. You'll take care of that, Headmistress?"

"Yes, I'll take care of it. The Ministry will want to confirm the identification before the body is destroyed," she replied as she accepted the pieces of the wand from him.

Moody then led his team out to see that the castle was secured. Professor Flitwick began a search of the body and removed several magical items including a parchment listing several items. For some unexplainable reason, Harry accepted the list and read it. His eyes widened in disbelief as he realized what the items listed were.

"What is it Harry?" McGonagall asked as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"It looks like a list of his horcruxes and where he hid them," Harry told her, showing her the list. "See here where diary, ring and locket are crossed out and destroyed written next to them." The lines through the words and the destroyed notation were cut deep into the parchment, as if the author of the list was angry when he made the notations.

As the Professors exchanged puzzled glances, they all wondered why Voldemort was so foolish to make a list of what and where his horcruxes were and carry it with him. They knew that in a few hours, teams of highly experienced. aurors would be out on search and destroy missions to find the remaining horcruxes. With luck, within days, Voldemort's reign of terror would be over forever.

Maybe not surprisingly, Voldemort's wand was on the list. A broken wand could be very unreliable, as Harry had reason to know, but breaking it wouldn't harm the horcrux it contained. McGonagall apparently had the same thoughts, it would be dangerous to have a horcrux so close to Voldemort's body, even now, the piece of Voldemort's spirit would be trying to return to his nearby body. This became evident as soon as she laid the broken wand on the floor, the pieces started to move and roll toward the body.

"A fire spell, I think," Professor Flitwick suggested, yew and phoenix feather are easily ignited and once they are destroyed, the spell holding the horcrux will be broken and the piece of soul destroyed. He then pointed his wand at the small pile of wand pieces and firmly spoke the incantation. He held the spell for a good 30 seconds, but other than a small red spot on the floor, nothing happened.

"We're going to have to do it all together in order to have the power to destroy it," the Headmistress said firmly. "Everyone gather round. Not you Harry, be ready with your strongest stunning spell, just in case."

Harry nodded and moved to where he would have a good clear shot at Voldemort's body, while the other Professors formed a circle around the broken wand. With determined expressions on their faces, they all pointed their wands at the broken wand on the floor.

"On the count of three," McGonagall commanded. "One, two, three."

At the end of the count, all of the Professors spoke the incantation. Blue light shot from their wands, the floor at the point of focus and a high-pitched whine could be heard. The whine grew unbearable, but none of the witches and wizards wavered. After more than a minute of holding the spell, the wand incinerated in a blast of white light and a masculine scream. Black smoke rose from where the wand pieces lay and dispersed into the air. Voldemort never really had a chance to come to life with this horcrux.

So four horcruxes were destroyed, with three to go. One was the tombstone of Thomas Riddle Sr. located in the village cemetery at Little Hangleton, near the old Riddle house. The second was Hufflepuff's Cup and it was hidden in a remote part of Albania, a rough map gave a general idea of its location. The third was the snake Nagini; her location was the old Riddle house, but being a living thing, it was possible that she would no longer be there and would have to be tracked down.

Once Mad-Eye confirmed that the school was secure and the wards strengthened to prevent further invasions, McGonagall asked Harry to keep quiet about his nighttime adventure to avoid panicking the other students. For the next few days Harry was on edge and couldn't concentrate on his studies.

Both Ron and Hermione were very annoyed with him when he said, "I can't tell you anything right now. Professor McGonagall asked me to say nothing until she gives me permission. Hopefully it won't be much longer." His friends didn't like it, but they agreed to wait.

It was dinnertime a week after Voldemort did himself in. As everyone settled into their places at their house tables, a beaming McGonagall caught Harry's eye and nodded. He turned to Ron and Hermione and said, "I think McGonagall is going to make an announcement about what happened last week, what I couldn't talk about."

The trio gave the Headmistress their full attention as she tapped a crystal goblet with her wand to get everyone's attention. "Your attention Please," she said, "I have a very important announcement to make." Once she had everyone's attention, she continued, "I have just been informed by the Ministry of Magic, that the threat posed by Voldemort is officially over. Voldemort is dead and the last of his horcruxes has been destroyed earlier today."

After a moment of stunned surprise, excited talk and cheers broke out. Seeing that Harry wasn't surprised by the announcement, Ron demanded, "What does this have to do with what you couldn't talk about?"

Hermione gasped, "Did you know that Voldemort was dead?"

"Yes," Harry told them, "Now listen."

McGonagall again tapped her wand to the crystal goblet. "To begin, we have our own Harry Potter to thank for this announcement. As some of you may not know, when Voldemort cast the killing curse on Mr. Potter years ago, it created a link between the two of them. One week ago, somehow Voldemort managed get past the wards and entered the school." She paused as cries of fear and dismay filled the Great Hall. Again tapping against her glass, she continued. "As I was saying, the threat from Voldemort is over. Through the link, Mr. Potter sensed Voldemort's presence, and undertook to alert the staff and lead Voldemort away from the populated areas of the castle and keep him there until he could be dealt with. As you can see, Mr. Potter was successful and not only did Voldemort die, one of his horcruxes was also destroyed." McGonagall, paused, "Harry Potter has proved his courage time after time in his meetings with Voldemort and never giving up. Thank you Mr. Potter."

Everyone in the hall started cheering, while Harry blushed, looked down at his plate and said, "I really didn't do anything." Thinking about how Voldemort didn't actually die at his hand, he hoped that the fuss would die down quickly and he could be for once, normal. He was glad that McGonagall didn't tell everyone exactly what happened. He was perfectly content to let everyone believe that all he did was lure Voldemort away and keep him occupied until help arrived. If the public believed that the staff of Hogwarts were the ones who destroyed Voldemort, all the better. They could have the well-deserved glory. He would be happy to lose the Boy-Who-Lived title and live happily ever after.

A few days later, after the fuss had died down a bit, Ron and Hermione got the full story out of him. Ron couldn't believe it. "What about the prophecy," he asked. "Weren't you supposed to kill him yourself? Was the prophecy wrong?"

"The prophecy says, if I remember correctly," Hermione said thoughtfully, "_either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives_ So maybe your image in the mirror, reflecting the curse back on him, somehow counts as being from your hand."

"I hope so," Harry replied. "I don't want to go through this ever again, and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to go through anything like it either."

That was something all three could agree on.

**Epilogue **

The day after the official announcement of Voldemort's death, the Ministry of Magic released a list of known Death Eaters for whom arrest warrants were being issued. The ministry also suggested any Death Eaters not on the list should turn themselves in in exchange for a lighter sentence. All Death Eaters would be questioned under veritaserum in order to determine the amount of their involvement with Voldemort and whether they were under the Imperius Curse before they would be sentenced. Leniency would be granted for those who were under the Imperius, were underage, or had not killed or used any of the Unforgivable Curses.

Ex Hogwarts Potions/DADA Professor, Severus Snape, was among the first to turn himself in, dragging with him a reluctant Draco Malfoy. Snape, in a voluntary statement, which he confirmed under veritaserum, listed the names of nearly all of Voldemort's willing followers. He also named those who he believed were under the Imperius and the very few that he knew of that hadn't killed or used Unforgivables. It was also discovered that his killing of Headmaster Dumbledore was done under the influence of an unbreakable vow between Snape and Dumbledore. With the details reveled, Snape was cleared of that charge and sentenced to several years detention at a medium security prison where he was willingly put to work developing and brewing tricky and difficult potions such as wolfsbane and other medicinal potions to help relieve the suffering of those harmed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, wizarding and muggle alike. Afterwards, he was hired by a magical pharmaceutical company to continue the development and manufacture of medical potions.

Draco Malfoy was another thing altogether. Under questioning, he admitted to voluntarily taking the dark mark after his seventeenth birthday. Totally unrepentant, he confessed to using or attempting to use unforgivables on and generally harassing his fellow students at Hogwarts. His only regret was that he'd been unable to carry out his orders from Voldemort and kill Dumbledore. Because of his youth, and the fact that he'd not killed anyone and his unforgivables didn't do much lasting harm, as his punishment, he had to undergo a complex ritual where he was stripped of his ability to do magic and rendered a squib. He was then released and allowed a ministry-approved allowance from the Malfoy estate. Once he realized that no one in the wizarding world would hire or have anything to do with him, he petitioned the Ministry of Magic to increase his allowance so he could further his education in the muggle world. This was granted and he eventually got a job where he could live if not in the style to which he was accustomed and born to, but better than what he had as a poor muggle living on the Ministry's allowance.

The Death Eaters of Voldemort's inner circle were sentenced to life at Azkaban and had their wands snapped and their magic removed so if they did escape or were later pardoned, they would be unable to harm anyone with magic. Those with lesser crimes and levels of magic had their wands snapped and were released after serving their time at Azkaban under the watchful gaze of the dementers. Upon their release, they were more than glad to refrain from magic and become law abiding members of the wizarding community. Those under the Imperius were given short sentences, had their wands returned and they returned to their respectable lives. Peter Pettigrew, was permanently spelled into his animagus form and used by Snape as a test subject for his potions research.

After finishing at Hogwarts, Harry and his friends furthered their education at various wizarding universities before Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione got married. Harry, Ron and Ginny played Quidditch for England then went on to play professionally. Hermione got a job with the Ministry of Magic and as she worked her way up to being the Minister of Magic, she saw to it that laws were enacted to find permanent and loving homes for orphaned pureblood, half blood and muggle born witches and wizards. Also stiffer laws were enacted to punish wizarding parents who neglected or abused their children. It was felt that keeping and rescuing wizarding children from these situations, would make another Voldemort less likely. Both couples eventually had large families and remained best friends for the rest of their days.

_**The end.**_

10/19/06


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